Vice President Vance calls Magnifica Humanitas ‘profound’

“The thing about morality is that the principles never change, but the way you apply those principles does, because the world changes, right?” Vance told NBC News.

Vice President JD Vance welcomed the release of Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas in an interview, calling the Holy Father’s first encyclical “profound.”

Vance, a Catholic, told NBC News on May 26 that while he had not read the document in its entirety, “What I read of it sounds very profound, and the sort of thing that you would expect and hope from a leader of the Church.”

The vice president’s comments came the day after the encyclical’s release on May 25.

“The thing about morality is that the principles never change, but the way you apply those principles does, because the world changes, right?” Vance said.

“You have new technologies and warfare, so you have to update ‘just war’ doctrine,” he said. “New ways of human beings interacting with one another, so you have to kind of rethink the entire Catholic social teaching in light of the new world that we live in. And I think that’s exactly what the pope is trying to do. So I’m glad that he did it.”

Vance has previously critiqued Leo for weighing in on the Iran war, saying that while it’s good the pope discusses what he cares about, “in some cases it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of whatʼs going on in the Catholic Church, and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.”

He has also said that he respects and admires Leo and likes “that the pope is an advocate for peace.”

The vice president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment or to verify quotations in the NBC report.